Highlighting the obtuse, the slanted and sometimes just plain ignorant writings found in The Gray Lady

Internet

After the New York Times disastrous miscalculation on the 2016 election of Donald Trump, they have gone though a much ballyhooed reformation in order to present the world’s affairs to its readers in a – well, some kinda different format.

A very ugly example of this new format has been its coverage of the recent deaths of Pop star George Michael and Film star Debbie Reynolds.

NYT’s writer Wesley Morris threw out extended stories on Michael and Reynolds lives under the creepy title “An Appraisal.”

“An Appraisal?”

Those of us in the civilized world understand “An Appreciation” of someone’s life after they have passed on. But, an “appraisal?”

Appraisals are something you do to a used car. An appraisal is something you do to a piece of property.

After an artist has just died, you do NOT offer up an appraisal.

Unless, of course, you are a crass, wallowing-in-a-moral-morass NYT’s writer.

**********************

Need an example of some “appraisals” from NYT’s writer Morris? How about:

“Who the hell is gonna be named Debbie?” on Ms. Reynolds.

Or calling Ms. Reynolds “a casually narcissistic gorgon of a mother.”

Or his vicious hits on George Michael, just a day after his death, ridiculing his “butch” style or making left-handed cuts about his homosexuality.

Incredulously, this quat writer Morris puts this stuff out in a – yes – casually narcissistic manner meant to be chatty and endearing.

If this dude were ever speaking at a wake, we’re sure he’d end up buried before the person in the casket.

***********************

How about this: Since we can’t trust The New York Times to properly appraise our current political or world situations, why the HELL do they think they can appraise the lives of artists who have done much to add joy to this world?

In the face of these damning facts it is beyond preposterous that these coddled, spoiled boy-athletes believe that they have the moral right to stand before this nation and present themselves as poor, beleaguered victims seeking justice.

What did they do?

There was a young woman, incapacitated by alcohol, thrown on a bed. The “men” of the University of Minnesota football team then kept her imprisoned in a room, organized themselves enough to stand in line to sexually assault her, sometimes 2 at a time, videotaping it at times, including an underage football recruit in this criminal act, texting other football players to get them to participate in this criminal activity, all the time ignoring the woman’s calls to stop.

And the team’s quarterbacks, their leaders, were in on it, too.

If this is a team, then it’s time to get rid of it.

What makes this more outrageous is Minnesota football coach Tracy Claeys says he is “100%” behind his “boys” actions in standing up for their gang raping friends.

Time for University Pres. Kaler to get rid of Claeys.

***************************

Look at Baylor’s football program. For years its players preyed on the female students at that Christian university in Texas where football is king. And the administration covered it up to the point where they threatened the female victims with expulsions for reporting rape by football players because – get this – sexual activity is grounds for dismissal from Baylor. How’s THAT for a novel way to keep victims silent!

Eventually Baylor’s president, AD and coach were let go, though none admitted any wrongdoing. And the rest of the coaching staff that an investigation determined promoted a dangerous environment for women on campus, was allowed to continue on the payroll and is still there today.

****************************

Need more?

How about Oklahoma’s star running back Joe Mixon, a sure 1st round pick in the NFL draft. Just today a video was released showing him knocking out cold a female student in a restaurant. Mixon was barely punished. Why? Because the girl “pushed” him? We suppose that gives a huge, muscular, coiled, angry football player the right to slam his fist into the face of a little blond girl.

Alabama will be playing for the national championship again this year with illustrious Offensive Coordinator Lane Kiffin on the sidelines.

Well Kiffin just took the head coaching job next year at Florida Atlantic Univ. and his first big athlete signing was…the former Florida State quarterback who was dismissed for knocking out a girl in a bar.

See a pattern here?

Does anyone in America laugh anymore while the NFL constantly runs smiley, happy commercials during their games about how “family-friendly” football is? Commercials showing kids and moms and dads playing joyfully together in a blissful world full of NFL-themed products?

Then back to the games where every five minutes the action must be stopped because a player has been knocked cold by another player’s dirty hit. The concussed player carried off the field, unable to continue, while the player who delivered the dirty hit is assured a highlight on that evening’s sports broadcast and just gets to keep on playing.

Need an example?

Look at the hit on the very talented Darren Sproles last week by Deshazor Everett.

Sproles was out, and is out for this weeks game, too. Everett just keeps playing.

************************

Is there something wrong with football? It didn’t use to be this way.

Is there something wrong with America? It didn’t use to be this way.

There is definitely something wrong with the twisted, feeble, infantile minds and behavior of the University of Minnesota football team when they believe they are the righteous victims when in truth they are promoting a sick mindset that flies in the face of logic and should outrage all Americans.

The head football coach of Indiana University was allowed to resign by Athletic Director Fred Glass after multiple reports of athlete abuse in what can only be described as an extreme case of coddling an NCCA football coach.

Indiana AD Fred Glass has been an incompetent for years in twiddling his way through the myopic world of Hoosier sports. But in allowing an abusive Division I coach to resign rather than firing him can only be described as malicious and shows a clear disregard for the health and well-being of the college student-athlete.

Fred Glass should be fired.

If you are the parent of a high school athlete why ever would you want them to attend Indiana University if the head Athletic Director does everything he can to protect the reputation of an abusive coach rather than respond to the well-being of the athletes who depend on the university for everything from housing to food to health care.

Parents do NOT intend their children to be mentally or physically abused by the coaches who are acting under the direct supervision of the Athletic Director Fred Glass.

Football coach Kevin Wilson is gone.

But it is Athletic Director Fred Glass who allowed the abuse to go on for years.

As the Penn State case has shown, the buck doesn’t stop at the coach: It goes all the way to the top to the coach’s bosses.

Shame on them.

[And if the players want it to stop, there is only one way. Like Penn State, bring on the lawsuits. 100’s of millions of dollars will get the attention of these ignorant, short-sighted, insulated from reality athletic directors.]

The virulently anti-gay, anti-diversity, Antediluvian VP-elect Mike Pence is a born-again Christian who as governor of the backwoods state of Indiana did all he could to turn back the clock to witch-burning times.

The nation has no concept of the pure doltishness of Michael Pence, but they are about to find out.

Clueless news outlets like The New York Times make fatuous claims that Pence somehow will provide a steadying hand to Trump simply because Pence has some experience in public office.

Those who know know that Pence has sawdust for brains. And his record in private practice and in public service show repeatedly his wits are as leaden as the water coming out of a Flint, Michigan water faucet.

*****************

And our President-Elect is already firing off Twitter threats – This time against a Broadway cast.

My gawd.

The terrorists of the world are laughing. Now they know if they attack America after Donald J. Trump is president, all they have to fear is a Twitter demand for an apology.

An anecdote: A friend who is a university teacher told us of a post-election class where many of their students were so distraught about the Trump election. The teacher then asked how many had voted.

No one raised their hands.

Meanwhile, thousands are storming through the streets across America. We wonder how many of them can actually name their local congressman. Or how many had voted.

Before anyone goes out to cause a ruckus in the cites of America they need to show proof they actually showed up to vote last week. Otherwise, they are pretenders to this revolution.

****************

We had a record low voter turnout in this most-important election in 2016. Only 55%. A 20 year low according to news reports.

And everyone’s surprised about the results?

Shouldn’t that be news? That in the most important election in our recent history almost half the nation chose to say “I don’t care”?

****************

Earlier this year there were protests across the UK when the nation voted for the Brexit resolution, catching many of the young, urbanite population offguard. They hadn’t voted either. It was a big, rural voter turnout that enabled Brexit to go forward. So, those who didn’t vote, protested. Too late.

****************

There are times for protests. This isn’t one of them. If it makes you feel better, howl at the moon. Get it out of your system.

Then, go to work. Organize. Talk to other people. Go online and get information. Find your senator and representative. Contact them. Don’t be angry. Come up with some positive ideas. Know other people like yourself who are concerned? Form a group. Organize. Get more members. Meet at your local library. Don’t like what the Democrats/Republicans did? Start your own party. Or join the local Democratic/Republican party and see what you and your friends can do about making changes.

But that’s not going to change anything. Real change takes a lot of work. Real change takes a lot of…organization. People-to-people work. Not staring into the smartphone stuff. And these days that’s all you see around you, people staring into their phones, attention span, well, wait, my phone just beeped!

Protesting is easy. Just check the location of the latest protest site on your phone and head over. Walk down the street. Hold a sign.Yell.

Protesting, at this point, is a sign of weakness. You may think you are empowering yourself. You may think you are validating your viewpoint or emotions. You may feel better about yourself. But, as any adult should tell you, feelings are short term.

Protesters? Essentially, you’re throwing a temper tantrum cause you lost and the other side won.

And isn’t THAT what Trump and his minions threatened to do if they lost?

( Suggestion: If you happen to be at a protest, grab a bunch of them and take them home for a political organizing coffee-clatch where you can get some real work done!)

For 2 weeks Bob Dylan has been silent about his Nobel Prize win for Literature.

And The New York Times has been on a hate parade about it.

Ever since the Swedish Academy announced 2 weeks ago it was awarding Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize for Literature, The New York Times has been tying itself up in politically correct conniption fits.

The Times has been spinning the news in their own way: That Dylan’s silence over the matter somehow shows ungratefulness. Worse, The Times’ implication has for 2 weeks been that the Nobel Prize for Literature rather should go to some unknown (unworthy) who would therefore be thrust into the world’s spotlight to illuminate this or that passing cause to us unlearned masses.

They even published an opinion piece: “Why Bob Dylan Shouldn’t Have Gotten A Nobel”

Read it. It says, in part, the Nobel committee should have given the award to an “underrepresented” group, or for example, an “online” writer.

(Note to Times: These are the types of articles that turn people into Trumpsters.)

You mean, someone irrelevant. Someone who hasn’t changed millions of lives or made countless impacts across all spectrums of peoples and races across the world? Dylan’s music still inspires millions of fans and wannabe musicians.

The Nobel Prize was first awarded over a century ago and was given for a writer’s body of work over their lifetime.

The Nobel is not – as The Times and other Politically Correct Revisionists would have it – an award given to push this year’s favorite cause celebre’.

Anyone – anyone – who knows Dylan’s work knows the great influence books and literature had on him as a lyricist and comprehends how much he deserves this Nobel award – No matter the unconventional, out-of-left-field manner in which it came about.

Anyone who knows Bob Dylan knows the impact his work has had across the world: In politics, film, literature, art, fashion and music.

Organizations like The New York Times with their blindered writers and editorial boards can go back to Youtube or somewhere else and watch that singular event in July 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival when Dylan shocked audiences with his messy, raucous electric performance of “Like A Rolling Stone” and changed the face of rock and roll forever.

That’s what artists do. They shake things up. They do the unexpected. They do NOT conform to the standards that the media or business demands from them. And that it what Bob Dylan has been doing for over 50 years as an artist.

And if The New York Times doesn’t like it, they can write their own protest song.

We just finished watching the October 24th 2016 evening broadcast of the PBS Newshour. We were aghast at their slanted coverage against American Sioux Tribes protesting the building of oil pipelines across tribal lands and – most importantly – the planned pipeline under protected waterways that supply vital drinking water to the tribes.

The reporter practically pushed the cause of oil companies and their arguments. No where was there any interview from any Tribal representative. No where did it mention that Bakken oil sludge is the dirtiest, most costliest to process in the world.

Instead, PBS sounded like an 19th Century “Who are these injuns and we can do what we want on their land!” kind of story.

It is sovereign land. When will the United States finally accept the law that granted Native Americans the right to rule over their own land?

To underscore Public Broadcasting’s disgraceful lack of respect for Native Americans and their issues, after a quick dismissal of this massive tribal conflict, PBS spent the next 10 minutes on one of their more favored subjects, Syria, where they managed to ingterview a Syrian about the war for a good 10 minutes.

We are left to assume that the supposed Liberals at PBS care not for the very important issues going on in their back yards with Native Americans.

***********

When you want to belittle a cause, simply silence the voices of the cause. That is what Judy Woodruff – news editor – and PBS chose to do in this very important sovereign issue on Native American rights. (Note: First Nations is the term used in Canada while in the US Native American is still commonly used. Aboriginal or Indiginous peoples are also generalized terms used.)

It’s important to realize that Warren Buffet is a large advertiser with PBS. Warren Buffet has directly invested $Billions in the oil pipeline in stock buys in pipeline companies and has also increased his $Billions already invested in oil refinery corporation Phillips 66.

A couple months ago a BNSF derailment and subsequent explosion caused massive damage out West – it was covered by all the major news services. PBS made no mention of this major environmental disaster.